Brampton councillors demand public accounting from Mayor Susan Fennell over expensesMembers angry about plans to hold closed-door meetings to discuss Fennell's liberal use of taxpayer money for everything from iTune upload($1) to Mandarin lessons ($3,400).

Brampton councillors are demanding that Mayor Susan Fennell expenses be discussed in an open forum rather than private staff briefings. Much remains unknown about the cost of travel and other items not included in the $186,000 worth of expenses over the past three years that have so far come to light.

Brampton councillors are angry that a meeting to discuss Mayor Susan Fennell’s excessive spending — some $186,000 over the past three years, from a $1 iTunes upload to a $3,200 seat upgrade to India — might take place behind closed doors. Meanwhile, new revelations about her cost to taxpayers have emerged.

“The mayor is pushing to prevent an open public meeting,” Councillor John Sprovieri said Monday. “Last week, we said this has to be done in an open, public council session.”

However, councillors say that on Friday afternoon they were notified by chief administrative officer John Corbett that the mayor’s spending would be dealt with in staff briefings Wednesday, not the scheduled council meeting.

Corbett told the Star that attendance at the staff briefings would be at the discretion of councillors.

Sprovieri said he has asked Corbett to move the meeting onto a public agenda, and Councillor Elaine Moore said she and others might try to get the issue added to Wednesday’s city council meeting agenda, which would require a vote by council.

A spokesperson for the group Citizens For a Better Brampton asked about “out of line” spending by Fennell, Canada’s highest-paid mayor, during a committee meeting last week and got no response. Budget chair Gael Miles said the issue would be dealt with during budget deliberations, public meetings for which are set for the first week of December.

“Before the beleaguered Brampton taxpayer is burdened with additional tax hikes or cuts to important services,” the citizens’ group posted on its website, “CFBB believes it’s about time for some fiscal leadership from our Mayor and some overdue belt tightening of her own.”

Fennell’s expenses were a trending topic on Twitter last week, even amidst the attention drawn by the ongoing scandal in neighbouring Toronto.

“While the cat had #MayorFord’s tongue, this was the real scandal with#SusanFennell,” tweeted Twinky Sukhija.

“Is @mayorfennell headed for the Canadian #Senate. She seems to have all the qualifications,” tweeted David Blakely.

Facing mounting pressure to publicly explain her expenses, Fennell instead called for meetings with small groups in her boardroom to discuss the issue privately in “briefing sessions.”

The $186,000 spent on miscellaneous expenses over the past three years became public only after a Freedom of Information request by the Brampton Guardian.

The expenses include frivolous amounts, such as $1 for an Apple iTunes download and $2 for an airport luggage cart, as well as $1,500 for orchestra tickets, $3,400 for Mandarin and French lessons, $3,200 for a seat upgrade to India and $2,160 for barbecue aprons with her name on them.

On Monday, Fennell responded to some of the complaints for the first time, telling the Star through spokesman Michael Genova that the orchestra tickets were purchased for a fundraiser, the Rose Orchestra Gala, and the table was donated back to the orchestra to be filled.

A flight expense of about $1,900 was airfare to Bagotville, Que., where she studied French in an immersion program.

The $186,000 in expenses does not include most of Fennell’s travel. For example, a trip to the 2013 meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual general meeting in Vancouver, to which Fennell took along three of her staff — an unusually large entourage — was not included. The cost of that trip has not been released.

Now, councillors want to know the circumstances under which the city has provided a Lincoln Navigator SUV — a vehicle that sells for $75,000 up to $95,000 — for the mayor. In addition to her salary and other benefits, she received a $23,500 car allowance and $46,000 for a driver last year. Fennell’s spokesman wrote in an email that the vehicle is leased by the city, as per council policy.

After learning about the extent of Fennell’s expenses last week, Brampton councillors called the mayor’s spending “embarrassing.”

“Now we need to ask more questions. The costs just keep mounting. The public is demanding that council hold her accountable,” said Councillor Elaine Moore. “The meeting on Wednesday should not be behind closed doors, away from the eyes of the public and the media.”

Councillors have told the Star that before the expense details were released, they weren’t even aware of some major expenses, including Fennell’s trips to Nova Scotia and Alberta earlier this year.

She has not answered questions about many of the expenses, but last week called all of them “money well spent.”

Moore says she needs to explain that statement. “This meeting to get answers has to be in the open. We are trying to make that happen.”

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